


lost signals.

by mintweather



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Miscommunication, Romantic Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:01:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29774499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mintweather/pseuds/mintweather
Summary: Jason firmly believes that his headphones are broken.Nico believes he never quite had any use for them.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Jason Grace
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	lost signals.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vidimillion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vidimillion/gifts).



> Happy Valentine's month Vidi! 
> 
> Sorry this is so late and a bit rushed, things have been super hectic here, but I'm really glad I got you as my secret valentine! I know you're a bit of a lurker but I do enjoy hearing your input and headcanons whenever you pipe up, it's really such a pleasure having you around (: I hope you're enjoying your time in the server and I hope you like it! 
> 
> Tina <3

The legion hands Jason his headphones for the first time at thirteen years old. They’re a sleek black, the band that goes over his head all smooth plastic. When he puts them over his ears they cushion them delicately, comfortable and snug. He wants to wear them for hours and listen to his soulmate’s voice over the microphone. 

“Hello?” He says carefully in the barracks, later that evening. He’d opted to skip dinner. All his words get in return is silence.

*

Nico turns thirteen and his father gives him a soft blue headset. He is homeless and hungry and wakes up in the woods with it next to his head. There’s a cupcake in a plastic container beside it, a sticky note that reads  _ Happy Birthday, from Dad. _

Admittedly, he’s more concerned with wolfing down the cupcake than he is with the headset. He doesn’t even know what it is or why he needs it; as a kid from the 1940s he can barely work a calculator in the modern age. Nico examines the wireless headphones before he slips them on and is greeted by static.

“Hi?” he tries, uncertain, and scratches his palm before he takes them off. They’re bulky and the color feels loud to him, so he does his best to keep them out of sight, strapped to his belt on his hip. Nico picks up the little things he owns and moves on.

  
-

Nico finds out what they are and what they’re for later that year when he’s staying at Camp Half Blood after the war, and walks past a group of Aphrodite children excitedly talking about theirs. He’s left his pair in his newly constructed Cabin that he fears he won’t even be able to use. The looks and whispers are starting up again. He pauses, hiding in the shadows, and overhears their conversation: talks of soulmates and true loves and futures together. 

_ I’ve already talked to mine,  _ one says.

He feels dumb for a moment, and skips training to shadowtravel back to his Cabin and put them on immediately. Percy and Annabeth have kissed and started dating a few weeks ago, their headphones connected, and his heart still feels sore.

“Hello?” Nico tries, to no avail. “Hello? Hello?” 

Static crackles on the other line, no response. Nico wonders if he’s even capable of having a soulmate, or if this is just a cruel trick by Aphrodite.

*

Jason’s headphones sit collecting dust on his dresser. At some point in the past year, the silence had morphed into static, and Jason had eagerly put them on to try and speak with no luck. He ignores them for the most part now, figuring it’s either a glitch or they’re broken. He and Reyna have had a war on their hands, so he’ll fix them when he has time. 

He meets Nico di Angelo briefly that summer, as he brings Hazel Levesque to the Legion’s doorstep, and Jason watches as she almost immediately unites with Frank Zhang, a legionnaire that had arrived a few months prior that her headphones connected to, apparently. She does nothing about it, and the two are left on awkward footing, Hazel unwilling to give in to everyone’s expectations and Frank sparing glances at her every other minute. Frustrated and wondering if being Praetor is all he has going for him, Jason returns to Olympia later that evening and leaves the headphones somewhere in the back of his closet.

*

Nico rots in a jar with his headphones snug against his chest, defeated. He can only hear quiet static. His fingers have become even bonier and his ribs protrude through his skin. He hopes someone comes to save him, but doubts anyone will want to but Hazel.

Maybe his soulmate is already dead and waits for him in the Underworld. The irony of it would be laughable. Nico closes his eyes and remembers the Aphrodite kid’s words.

_ If all else fails me, at least I’ll have them, right? _

*

Jason develops amnesia and forgets that his headphones are hiding in the back of his closet. Piper thinks they are soulmates, since he doesn’t have his and in her fake memories, they were connected. As Reyna is going to leave on Scipio’s back, she stops by Jason’s room, ignoring the way it upsets her, and hunts for the headphones herself, putting it into her knapsack.

*

They get Nico back. Jason stands in the corner of the med bay as Hazel frets over him. He’s frightfully thin, so much so that Jason finds himself worried despite not knowing the guy. Once she’s gone, giving him a suspicious glance, he treads closer, only to find Nico asleep. His face is softer, albeit gaunt, and he hugs a pair of blue headphones to his chest. His wrists are thin and white, body marred by scars and scabs from Tartarus, and his hair is choppy and uneven. He must cut it himself.

Jason wonders who his soulmate could be, if they keep in contact often. It looks like they do, or else Nico wouldn’t be clutching it like a lifeline. He clenches his jaw, happy for him and confused at the same time.

*

  
  


Jason gets his headphones back. Piper retreats to her room, devastated that they can’t hear each other when they speak. 

“Hello?” comes a weak voice on the other end, barely audible. Jason’s blood freezes, biting at the muscle, and he puts the headset back on.

“Hi…” he sounds breathless. “Hi, oh gods--” Guilt settles in like poison when he realizes he’s  _ excited. _

“I heard you talking,” the voice says. Jason’s heart cracks at the softness of it. It’s unmistakably male. He finds it doesn’t bother him.

“Yeah, yeah, I didn’t expect you to.”

“I’ve been… keeping it closer nowadays.”

“Really?”

“Um, hope I think.”

“I’ve been away from mine for a couple months, some stuff came up.”

“Oh.. me too.”

“You don’t sound too well. Are you okay? Safe?”

“I am now.”

“What’s going on? If you want to tell me.”

“It’s a long story…”

“That’s fine. What’s your name?”

“Nico.”

Jason’s heart stops.

No way.

No way.

No, absolutely not, nope. His soulmate has not been sitting under his nose this whole time. He didn’t opt to leave his soulmate behind to rot in that jar “for the sake of the quest.”

“What about you?” Nico continues.

“Jason.”

There’s silence on both ends.

“Gods no,” Nico says. The static returns. He’s taken his headphones off.

“Wait,” Jason says. “Wait, you can’t just hang up,  _ you’re literally downstairs, _ oh gods--” Jason leaves his headphones in his room and rushes down to the med bay.

*

Not for the first time, Nico tries to hide in the shadows, but he’s too weak to. So he opts for his sheets instead.

“Nico,” Jason says, opening the sliding door with urgency.

“Sorry, we’re closed.”

“Hey, come on. Don’t be like that.”

“I called for you a bunch of times. Why didn’t you answer? Did you know it was me? Is this some sick prank--”

“What? No! I wouldn’t do that. I… I thought mine was broken, so I never touched it. Can you look at me?”

Nico pokes his head out from under the bedsheets, and a confusing mix of emotions rises in Jason’s chest, tangling together like wires.

“...Are you disappointed?”

“No,” Jason says honestly, “more surprised than anything else.” He sits in Hazel’s chair next to Nico’s cot. “Um, can I touch your hand?”

Nico seems hesitant, unnerved by the whole thing, but moves his hand out from under the covers. Jason rests his on top of it gingerly. Nico’s knuckles are cold. He rubs at them with his thumb, hoping to warm it up some.

“Cold, right? Like a corpse.”

Jason narrows his eyes. “You’re not gonna scare me off.”

Nico buries his face into his pillow for a moment before he lifts it again. “So you’re just gonna start caring about me now that you’ve found out we’re soulmates?”

Jason blinks. “Not if you don’t… want me to? We can start as friends and work our way up. I’d rather do that.”

Nico’s lips twitch, and he turns to face Jason completely, laying on his side. “That sounds better.”

  
  



End file.
